The Rays and the Initiations - Part Two - Section Two - The Aspirant
and the Major Initiations

Initiation V - The Revelation

As we
undertake the consideration of the next initiation, you will find that three factors will
emerge in a new light in your consciousness. That they are factors related to past
experiences, and yet which have reference to experiences which lie far ahead of you upon
the Path, will also be inferred from what I say; these will not necessarily meet with your
real understanding. These factors are:

The factor of Blindness, leading to revelation.

The factor of the Will, producing synthesis.

The factor of the Purpose, externalizing itself through the Plan.

These are all implicit in this new initiatory experience, but they should be approached
by you with as much use of the intuition as you can employ; your effort will have to be
that you endeavor to think as if you had taken the higher initiations. You
have to bear in mind that each initiation enables the initiate to "see ahead" a
little further, for revelation is always a constant factor in human experience. The whole
of life is revelation; the evolutionary process is, in relation to consciousness, a
process of leading the blind out of darkened areas of consciousness into greater light,
and therefore into a vaster vision. [704]

As you
know, this particular initiation has been called the "Resurrection" by the
Christian world, emphasizing that aspect in the experience of the initiate which leads to
revelation; i.e., his "rising out of the ocean of matter into the clear light of
day." The thought of revelation can be seen also in the Christian teaching anent the
"Ascension" - an initiation which has no factual existence and should not be
called an initiation. You have, therefore, the following sequence, connected with the
fourth and fifth initiations:

Renunciation, producing crucifixion and leading to

Ascension, or a complete "rising out of," or "mounting higher,"
leading to

Revelation, giving vision, the reward of the two above stages.

Christian
theologians have made three distinct episodes out of these two initiations, but this has
in no way mattered (as the initiate in the West soon learns); he now knows that the whole
series of initiations, with their causes, their effects and their resultant intentions are
only a sequence of processes, leading from the one to the other. A corresponding sequence
can be seen in the unfoldment of the consciousness of the human being from infancy to full
maturity; each unfoldment is part of a series of revelations, as his vision of life and
his capacity to experience develops. This is true of all men from the most primitive to
the advanced initiate, the difference consisting in that which each brings to the
experience as the result of past effort, his point in consciousness and the quality of the
vehicles through which that consciousness is developing. With the initiate-disciple this
is also the case; he enters consciously into each experience; they are integral
parts of his intention.

Having
renounced the three worlds, and having returned - back from a contact of great importance
and interest - to those three worlds and with all that is familiar in them, the initiate
suddenly realizes that he has indeed been liberated, that he is indeed free, that he has
been raised out of darkness and is now free in a new world of experiences. [705] He knows
that he has climbed to the mountain-top or has "ascended" to the buddhic plane,
from which plane he must permanently work and not just occasionally, as has been the
method hitherto.

He can work
through a physical body (with its subtler sheaths) or not, as he sees fit. He realizes
that he, as an individual, no longer needs a physical body or an astral consciousness, and
that the mind is only a service instrument. The body in which he now functions is a
body of light which has its own type of substance. The Master, however, can build a body
through which He can approach His incoming disciples and those who have not taken the
higher initiations; He will normally build this body in semblance of the human form, doing
so instantaneously and by an act of the will, when required. The majority of the Masters
who are definitely working with humanity either preserve the old body in which They took
the fifth initiation or else They build the "mayavirupa" or body of maya, of
physical substance. This body will appear in the original form in which They took
initiation. This I personally did in reference to the first case; i.e., preserving the
body in which I took initiation. This the Master K.H. did in creating a body which was
made in the form in which He took the fifth initiation.

It may interest you to know that the Christ has not yet decided what type of physical
vehicle He will employ should He take physical form and work definitely upon the physical
plane. He waits to see what nation or group of nations do the most work, and the most
convincing work, in preparation for His reappearance. He will not, however, take a
Jewish body as He did before, for the Jews have forfeited that privilege. The Messiah for
Whom they wait will be one of Christ's senior disciples, but it will not be, as
originally intended, the Christ. Symbolically, the Jews represent (from the point of view
of the Hierarchy) that from which all Masters of the Wisdom and Lords of Compassion
emerge: materialism, cruelty and a spiritual conservatism, so that today they live in OldTestament times and are [706] under the domination of the separative, selfish,
lower concrete mind.